The Public Debt Management Office (PDMO) managed to borrow 265 billion baht in the October-December quarter of fiscal 2016, almost 68% of this fiscal year's planned deficit.
The high borrowing is to serve the government's planned acceleration of investment budget disbursement, deputy director-general Theeraj Athanavanich said, adding that the government required 15-20% of the investment budget to be taken out in the first quarter of the fiscal year, which started on Oct 1.
In comparison, the PDMO's borrowing to offset the budget deficit amounted to a mere 31.2 billion baht in the first three months of fiscal 2015.
The investment budget disbursement was successfully ramped up as state agencies had prepared procurement plans before the 2016 budget expenditure was approved, Mr Theeraj said.
State investment and spending is crucial to maintaining Thailand's economic growth momentum as other engines including exports, private spending and domestic consumption remain tepid.
Regarding the 77-billion-baht budget for fast-track investment in road construction and repairs and water management projects, Mr Theeraj said 40 billion baht was drawn down, with another 10.3 billion expected to be disbursed in the three months to March.
The investment is part of the government's pump-priming to inject money into rural areas. Farmers and rural residents have been hit by sinking farm prices, drought, swelling household debt and the economic malaise.
Mr Theeraj cited a report by the Comptroller-General's Department that found 1.05 trillion baht worth of the fiscal-2016 budget expenditure was taken out, representing 38.6%.
Of the total, 960 billion baht was regular expenditure and 88.1 billion for investment. The disbursed investment budget accounted for 16.2% of the total investment budget.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said the planned fiscal-2017 budget expenditure rose slightly from this fiscal year's budget, as the government was able to cut overlapping expenditure by as much as 300 billion baht.